[ SECRET POST #4023 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4023 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 37 secrets from Secret Submission Post #576.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Wasn't the age difference also a reason against the relationship? He was like 10 years older. And Dan's ending was portrayed as a happy one. He lived with his chosen family and died defending them. It's mentioned that he died with a smile on his face in the wilderness he loved. It's not the typical happy ending but it works for him.

[(Anonymous)]

10 years was not much in that time period. Although she was pretty young so that might have been part of it. But I always got the impression that it was more about the blood on his hands, and about his rugged rough ways not being a good match for her more refined sensitive personality. Which...point. I can't argue that part at all. But I just always felt like Dan's story was presented as .... penance, I suppose. And he died smiling because by giving his life for others he paid the debt for the life he'd taken. *shrug* That's just me though. I'm not saying my impression is correct - it's been years since I read the book.

[(Anonymous)]

For a first relationship in the 1880s(?), 10 years was definitely less scandalous than it would be today, but still a larger than normal gap, particularly for a younger teenager in Bess's social class. 5 years would have been more typical.

Generally speaking, at that point in the US most marriages between people with 10+ years difference were either second marriages for one or more of the participants or shotgun weddings. Assuming, of course, that you weren't in an isolated area where potential partners were scarce.

[(Anonymous)]

Bess...right, sorry. I forgot that they called her Bess instead of Beth.

I just don't think the age gap had anything to do with Dan's "unsuitability" for Bess. Yeah, she was young in Jo's Boys (what was she? 16? I can't remember), but even if they'd been the same age, I don't think Dan would have been considered suitable for Bess, even without his prison record. To me, there's just this undercurrent that Bess is just too pure and, well, above him, for him to ever see as anything other than someone to worship from afar.